WHISPERS OF THE SANDMAN 4

3

  Jerry made his way carefully around the people in the room, about four of them; there was a flash from a camera and he blinked. He glanced at their feet, and cursed silently. Now there was no way they would be able to pick out one clear footprint from this place. Why didn’t they wear something to differentiate their footprints from the others, like a rubber band? Well, thank God for small mercies; at least they wore gloves. Dismissing this, he stepped slowly to the bed. The air in the room reeked heavily of violent death. Had that little girl seen this happen?

Jesus…

  The body was covered with a white sheet, but even that wasn’t helping much. What little blood that was still coming out was soaking the sheet slowly. They would need another one.

“And I thought I had seen it all,” Jerry said softly.

James nodded silently beside him, his jaw clenched. “Who,” he began, then thought the better of it, and corrected himself. “What did this?”

Everywhere Jerry looked, there was blood. The walls, the floor, even the ceiling. The bed was a forgone issue.

And he had not even seen the body yet.

His stomach turned to ice at the thought.

James signalled for one of the men to pull back the sheets, and Jerry inhaled sharply, then let it out slowly. He could barely make out the blue stripes on her pyjamas which was now thoroughly soaked in blood. It seemed as if someone had gone to work on her with a hammer and a million nails – that was the only thing he could think of now.

  But the worst thing of all…was her face. Or what was left of it…

  The nose was pretty much non-existent, and the mouth was…not right at all.

  And the eyes…well, the eye-sockets were just filled with drying pulp-like stuff that traced down tracks to the bed…

  What the hell is this?

  This was the stuff nightmares were made of, and it seemed this girl had experienced a killer of a nightmare, literally. This nightmare had obviously followed her into reality.

“Bogeyman,” Jerry said softly.

“What?” James asked.

“Nothing.” Looking at James, he said, “Look. I need to go. I think I’ve seen all I need to see for now.”

“Think so?”

“Yes. I’ll-”

“-come back when everyone is out. Yes I know” James completed his sentence. “See you later then.”

“Okay.” Jerry tapped his friend on the shoulder. “Make sure they get everything right.”

  Nodding, James said “Will do.”

  As Jerry left the room, something told him these people would find nothing there.